


Unfortunate Side Effects

by Duganator01



Series: New Ways To Fall Apart [3]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fluff, Gen, It is now at least, Jaune-centric, Past Injuries, Platonic Relationships, Rain, Team as Family, The Plot Is Cancelled, but also not really, sort of a sickfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-16
Updated: 2020-09-16
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:47:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26502379
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Duganator01/pseuds/Duganator01
Summary: Rain was nice. He used to like the rain.The staccato sound of droplets hitting the tile roof. Trickling down the sides of the houses and the branches of the barren trees. The smell of the air. Wet somehow, even thought it was just a smell. Fresh and murky all at the same time.Now it was just a sign that he was in for a lot of pain in the coming hours.(Sequel to Five Injuries Hidden. You don’t need to have read that one, but this one will make more sense if you do.)
Relationships: Jaune Arc & Everyone, Lie Ren & Nora Valkyrie
Series: New Ways To Fall Apart [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1865548
Comments: 3
Kudos: 25





	Unfortunate Side Effects

**Author's Note:**

> These are the days. It never rains but it pours.

Rain made the world into a watercolor painting version of the world. Which was appropriate, Jaune supposed, since it was painting the world with water.

Watching the clouds fill up the sky with billowing grey and white forms used to be fun. The shapes that they made were incredible, and he never really understood how it happened no matter how many times his younger sister explained it to him with a condescending look over her round glasses.

Now the clouds were just a sign that he was in for a lot of pain in the coming hours.

He’d woken up this morning with an ache in his leg. 

This was nothing unusual seeing as he’d nearly freaking shattered it barely a month previous. Only a couple days ago he’d finally been allowed to stop hobbling around the house with a cane. Like he was an old man or something.

He was going to miss being able to poke Ren from across the room, though.

But yeah. His leg hurting was no surprise. It’d been freaking agony in the week after he left the hospital. Not that Jaune stayed in bed like he probably should have. He wasn’t some helpless invalid, he could walk just fine!

And so he did. And maybe he should have realized ahead of time, but walking on a broken leg freaking hurt! Even when you were trying to stalwartly pretend that it wasn’t even broken let alone hurting.

That was weeks ago though.

It had been at least a week since his leg had hurt randomly. Aura healed it up all nice and good. That was the only reason his suddenly over-protective friends had allowed him to get rid of the cane. Anything less than perfect health, and he was sure that they would have re-confined him to bed rest.

But he was fine. The cane was ditched. And the pain was gone.

At least it had been.

So why was he waking up now and feeling like he’d just gotten back from the hospital?

Jaune’s eyes inched open, glaring before he was even fully awake. His blanket was tangled around him in knots. Clear evidence that his sleep hadn't been quite as restful as he’d hoped it to be. And gods dammit why did his legs hurt like he’d just run a mile?

He was pretty sure he didn’t remember running a mile, or any other distance any time recently. Nora was barely allowing him to  _ walk _ let alone run. And going off alone somewhere was out of the question. So what the hell?

“Good morning Jaune!” Oscar chirped brightly from across the room. Brightly, but softly. It was still early after all and just because they were awake did not mean everyone else was. Or even anyone else for that matter.

From his bed, Jaune just threw an arm over his eyes to block out the barely-any light coming from the window and groaned by way of a response. Oscar chuckled lightly at this, taking it for the greeting that it probably wasn’t. 

“Sleep well?” he asked, clipping his suspenders to their normal spots on his waistband.

“What do you think?” Jaune mumbled, voice muffled behind his arm. He was too tired and still hurting to deal with it being morning right now. How dare it be morning. Morning should be illegal.

“I’d go with no,” Oscar admitted from out of sight. Fabric rustled. Was he making his bed? Who cares honestly. Bed made or not, it wasn’t going to change the fact that Jaune wasn’t going to get back to sleep no matter how hard he tried.

“Sky looks like it’s gonna rain,” Oscar offered, trying again at initiating a conversation.

“It does?” He couldn’t really care less, but since it seemed like he wasn’t going to be sleeping again, he might as well start engaging with the actual world. “Like bad rain or not bad rain?”

“Is there any kind of bad rain?”

“I forgot you’re a farm boy,” Jaune groaned, finally flopping his arm off from his eyes. It wasn’t doing its job at blocking out the weak sunlight, so why keep bothering?

“You’re no better,” Oscar shot right back, and Jaune could barely see him crossing his arms in a stance he clearly stole from Weiss. “Didn’t you grow up on a farm, too?”

“Shut up-”

“With like five sisters?”

“Seven,” Jaune corrected, squinting over at him. “And I told you all that in the strictest confidence.”

“Sure you did,” Oscar responded. “And bad rain, for what your definition of bad rain would probably be.”

“Thunder and lightning?”

“Thunder, lightning, raining Beowulfs and Nevermore,” Oscar confirmed. 

“Hopefully not literally,” Jaune commented, glancing out the window of their shared room. “Don’t want to have to deal with that.” The sky sure did look angry.

“Agreed.” 

Groaning, Jaune sat up in bed. His covers fell away, and for a second he legitimately wondered if someone had stabbed him in the leg. Again.

Even from over here Jaune could see how Oscar’s face shifted into a familiar one of concern. “You okay?” he asked, hesitating in the doorway he’d just been about to exit.

“Hmm? Oh,” Jaune barely resisted the urge to suck in a sharp breath of pain through his teeth. “Yeah I’m good.” 

Oscar’s eyes narrowed in suspicion. Not that Jaune could blame him, he sort of had a track record for not admitting when he was actually hurting. “Okay, fine, leg hurts a bit,” he admitted reluctantly. 

He had to get used to the whole “talking to his friends about being hurt” thing. First instinct had him wanting to hide it, but they would skin him alive if they found out he was doing  _ that  _ again.

Oscar still hadn’t left the room. Indecision was embedded in every movement, from him shifting his weight from foot to foot, to him making no move to leave the room but also not leaving the doorway. 

“Oscar, just go to breakfast.”

“But if you’re hurt again-”

Jaune rolled his eyes fondly at the boy’s display of concern. “It’s not that bad really.” Oscar still didn’t move. “I’ll get some pain killers from the bathroom cabinet and meet you there, okay?”

Hesitating for a moment longer, Oscar finally gave in. He nodded slightly and slipped from the room, leaving Jaune to fend for himself.

And fend for himself he had to, because he’d just sent away his help. So he had to deal with this alone.

“Okay,” he muttered to himself, “that’s enough moping around, Arc, up you get.” Because it really wasn’t that bad, just a little sore after all. He’d definitely had worse, and he would probably have worse in the future with his track record, so a little pain was no biggie.

Besides, he’d already sent Oscar off with the promise that it was no big deal. So if he didn’t show up to breakfast soon, they were gonna start to get suspicious.

Best to just get it over with.

Gritting his teeth slightly, Jaune flipped the tangled covers off himself and swung his legs off the side of the bed. It wasn’t too bad, although his once-injured leg did protest loudly against the sudden movement.

It didn’t really  _ hurt _ that badly. It did hurt, don’t get him wrong, but hurt was the wrong word. It really felt stiff. Sore, like he really  _ had  _ gone running for a couple hours at least. But he hadn’t gone running, and his other leg wasn’t sore, so what the hell?

This was pathetic.

All he’d managed to do was swing his legs off the bed. Jaune wasn’t even freaking standing yet. Get up. Get  _ up _ you idiot, it’s just in your imagination.

Phantom pain, maybe. But that was for when the limb was missing, right? He’d have to ask Yang. Or maybe not. Was that a taboo topic? Could he ask about that?

Sliding out of bed perhaps more carefully than he normally would have done, Jaune couldn’t help wincing when he finally put pressure on his leg. It did hurt. Okay he’d admit it. It hurt. It hurt a lot.

Not as bad as it had when it had actually been freaking impaled and he’d been running around an enemy facility with a freaking metal rod sticking out of it, but it still hurt. 

He hobbled over to his dresser, hazarding a glance out the window again. Yup. Oscar was right, those were definitely storm clouds. He could even see lightning crackling in the distant ones. Nora would be happy at least, if she could convince Ren to let her go storm-chasing.

It was just sleeping, what the hell had he done to his freaking leg? Maybe he’d had a nightmare and freaking thwacked it against the wall or something. 

It wasn’t completely out of the question, he considered, pulling open one of the dresser drawers. Nightmares were an old friend, but usually they ended with him waking up in a panic. The flailing usually led to waking up, not to freaking injuring himself and staying asleep through the whole thing.

So no. It just didn’t really add up. 

He tugged a clean shirt on over his head. Hesitating, he decided against his normal jeans. Or shoes, for that matter. His leg hurt enough just standing here and resting half his weight on the wall, no need to mess around with proper clothes.

Besides, it was raining, and judging by the bank of clouds rolling into cover the city like a coffin lid, it was likely to do so all day. It wasn’t like they were gonna be leaving the house. He could stay in his pajamas mostly.

And Oscar might want to make his bed every morning, but no way in hell was he gonna do that. What was the point if he was just gonna mess it up again when he went to sleep later? Exercise in futility, that’s what it really was.

Pushing the door open with one hand, Jaune half-limped half-shuffled down the hallway. Bathroom first. For the painkillers. He’d only said that at first to placate Oscar, but now he was actually considering taking some.

Reaching the bathroom, he was mildly surprised to find it unoccupied. Guess Weiss was already done and Blake wasn’t back from her run yet. Finally a stroke of luck. 

Jaune stared at his bleary-eyed reflection in the cabinet for a second. 

Hair tousled from sleep, sticking up in even more directions than it normally did. Which was saying something, since it usually looked like half a haystack stuck on top of his head. The t-shirt he’d dragged out was apparently a bright pink novelty Mistral shirt that he’d picked up somewhere.

Nora had probably gotten it for him as a joke.

Jaune creaked the cabinet door open, snagged the bottle of painkillers, dropped a few in his hand and swallowed them dry. They were chalky and tasteless, but hopefully they’d help. Bottle was nearly empty, he’d have to put that on the shopping list on the fridge. 

In their line of work, medical supplies were never something that they wanted to be running low on. Even with Aura to shield from most injuries.

Leaving the bathroom, he passed a yawning, stretching, pajama-clad Ruby Rose. “Mornin’,” she said, a particularly big yawn stretching the vowel longer than she probably meant. “Sleep well?”

Jaune shrugged, moving to one side to let her pass. “You know how it is.”

Ruby nodded. She did know how it was. Giving him an understanding pat on the arm, she sidled past him into the newly vacated bathroom.

Reaching the kitchen didn’t take long, but by the time he dropped into an empty chair at the table, he was more than a little glad to be off his feet. Jaune left his aching leg stretched out as much as he could without freaking kicking Weiss under the table. No matter how much pain he was in, he knew she wouldn't thank him for that.

“Feeling better?” Oscar asked over a bowl of cereal. 

Guess it was a fend for themselves kind of day. Except for the pancakes that Ren would probably roped into making for Nora. Jaune knew that he’d have to get back up to get himself something, but right now that could freaking wait a minute.

“A bit, yeah,” Jaune said with a groan, settling back into the back of his chair. “Painkillers haven’t really kicked in yet.”

“Painkillers?” Weiss asked, stirring her coffee and eyeing him with something that might have been concern if it was on anybody else’s face. “Did you somehow get hurt in the few hours between going to bed and getting up this morning?”

“Apparently,” he chuckled. “Dunno how, honest.” And he really didn’t was the worst part. Why did his leg hurt again all of a sudden? What had changed?

“This is surprising even for you,” she commented dryly, rolling her eyes.

Jaune was about to protest when Ruby entered the room, looking marginally more awake and now adorned with her cape over her pajamas. “What’s surprising?” she asked, already opening cupboards in search of food.

“Jaune hurt himself somehow,” Oscar explained, gesturing at him with his spoon. Anticipating her question he continued with, “And he doesn’t know how.”

“How could you not know?!”

“I just don’t, okay!” Jaune exclaimed defensively, throwing his arms up in the air and wincing when doing so jostled his leg again. “I just woke up and my leg was hurting again.”

“Did you fall out of bed or something?”

“No, Weiss, I think I would remember falling out of bed.”

“With how you are, I think it was worth asking.”

“Thank you, Weiss.”

Ruby set another kettle on to boil, anticipating Blake and her uncle’s imminent entrance to the kitchen. “Does it hurt bad?” she asked, pouring herself a bowl of cereal and leaning back against the counter.

“That’s the thing, it’s weird,” Jaune answered. He turned the words over in his head, trying to find the ones he needed. “It’s just like… really sore. Not like it’s bruised,” he amended quickly, “But like I went on run or something.”

“And did you?” Oscar asked, putting his own bowl in the sink.

“Course not. I wouldn’t be confused if the answer was  _ that  _ obvious.”

Ruby looked puzzled at that. Thankfully she was saved from having to come up with an answer by Blake returning from her run. Looking, for lack of better words, like a wet cat.

“It’s pouring,” she announced, standing in the kitchen doorway and looking thoroughly sorry for herself.

“Oh! Yeah, sorry,” Oscar winced. “Should have messaged you or something, shouldn't I?”

“It’s fine,” she sighed, wringing her hair out into the rapidly collecting puddle of water around her feet. “I was already on my way back anyway.” Her ears flicked irritably, trying to free themselves of any stray water droplets. “Better go dry off,” she muttered, turning to leave.

“I’ll have some tea ready when you get back!” Ruby called after her, receiving a thumbs up in response. Ruby sighed, and shoveled another spoonful of cereal into her mouth. “Raining huh? Guess it’s a do-nothing kind of day.”

“Yeah, guess so,” Jaune replied, reluctantly dragging himself out of his chair. Breakfast wasn’t gonna just make itself.

When he winced again after standing, Weiss’s eyes narrowed thoughtfully. “It’s raining…” she murmured, not clarifying what she meant in the slightest.

“Blake said so at least,” Ruby amended, shuffling to one side to let Jaune get at the cupboards. The kettle whistled loudly, and she put her bowl down. Pulling out three mugs, Ruby said, “And from how drenched she was, I kinda believe her.”

“Why do you bring it up?” Jaune asked, balancing on one foot as he stretched up to grab the box he wanted. He passed Ruby down the tea Blake would want, and carefully settled back onto both feet as he retrieved his cereal.

“It’s just… my mother would get like this sometimes,” Weiss admitted, taking a long sip from her coffee. Jaune’s eyes widened, and Ruby shot him a similar look to the one he knew must be on his face. 

Not talking about Weiss’s parents was one of the unspoken rules or the household. Like bringing up Blake’s past in the White Fang. Or anything relating to the Fall. It just wasn’t done.

So why was Weiss doing it?

“Your… mother?” Oscar asked hesitantly, wary of stepping on some unseen landmine. Jaune didn’t blame him. Oscar knew less than the rest of them, but even  _ he _ knew it was best to let Weiss lead this particular conversation.

Weiss just shrugged. “When it rained,” she explained. Barely. That wasn’t an explanation, what the heck Weiss?!

Seeing the bewildered expressions on all of their faces, she rolled her eyes and clarified. “Whenever it rained, my mother would drink more.” She swirled her coffee mug and kept her eyes on it. 

“She’d broken her arm when she was a little girl, and she always used to say that the rain made her old injury hurt, so I thought,” Weiss gestured at Jaune with her mug, “What if the same thing is happening to you?”

It… it was possible, wasn’t it? Something about the rain was making his leg hurt again? A distant memory surfaced in Jaune’s mind. His grandfather saying that his old bones always let him know when a storm was coming. Maybe this was like that?

“So if it is, what am I supposed to do?” he asked, finally getting around to pouring himself a bowl of cereal. “I can’t drink-” He cut himself off. Better not say that. “I can’t do what your mom did,” he amended, shrinking a little under Weiss’s sharp look.

“No, you can’t,” she admitted, rising from her chair, “But I’d suggest at least sitting down instead of lurking next to the counter all day.” And you know what, that was a good point. Even standing there for that long was sending twinges of pain up his spine.

“Heat could help,” Ren spoke up from the doorway.

The kitchen occupants jumped, which  _ did _ have Jaune yelping in pain that time. “How long have you been standing there?!” Ruby exclaimed, holding her chest dramatically. “You’re gonna give me a heart attack!”

“Sorry, I thought you knew I was here,” Ren apologized, ignoring Ruby’s muttering about “stupid ninja powers.” He poured himself a cup of tea and continued, “Heat helps with ordinary soreness, so why not with this?”

“So what,” Jaune said, putting his now-empty bowl in the sink. “I should get like an electric blanket and just sit around all day?” That sounded like it would  _ suck _ , he had to say.

Ren nodded, and Jaune’s heart sank. “Great!” he groaned, crossing his arms in a humph.

“Awww!! Baby Jaune is having a sick day!” Ruby poked him in the arm with each word, and he batted away her hand.

“Ruby, I’m not even sick!”

“Go bundle up on the couch, Dr. Ren’s orders!”

“You're worse than my sisters.”

“Lies.”

“Ugh fine- stop poking me! -Fine I’ll go sit down!” Jaune gave in, retreating from the kitchen with his hands raised defensively.

Meandering his way into the living room, Jaune glared at the rapidly worsening storm outside. Rain was coming down in sheets and wind lashed it into the windows. Bright flashes of lightning kept forking their way across the sky with booms and rumbles of thunder following close behind.

Stupid storm, somehow making his stupid leg hurt again. Stupid leg, for that matter. It didn’t get out of the blame game just because it wasn’t at fault.

He flumped down into the soft cushions of one of the couches, but carefully, to leave his injured leg stretched out straight. So he was back to just lounging around the house. Great. This was just great.

Ren came in a few minutes later with an electric blanket that he’d dug out of somewhere. Plugging it in, he settled it across Jaune’s legs with a reminder not to move too much.

Finally emerging into the waking world, Qrow shuffled into the living room. Spotting Jaune sitting practically mummified on the couch, the man shook his head fondly in a way Jaune had often seen him do to his nieces. He ruffled Jaune’s hair as he passed through on his way to the kitchen. 

Craning his head to follow the man’s progress, Jaune saw Ruby meeting her uncle outside the door. She passed him one of the mugs she held, presumably filled with the darkest coffee ever brewed, and crossed to where Jaune was seated. Ruby adjusted his blankets and passed him the other mug. Hot chocolate.

When she finally woke up, Nora skipped in to see him and passed him one of her precious pancakes. Just one, but that was more than she usually gave anyone. She left with a tight hug to his shoulders and an order to get better immediately.

Oscar brought his hoodie to him from his room, along with the few comics he’d managed to pick up since staying here. He shuffled his feet awkwardly and muttered that Jaune might want something to do while he was stuck there.

Yang followed soon after Oscar left, announcing her entrance by tossing a pillow directly into Jaune’s face. She followed this up by also adjusting his now very warm blanket. Somehow she knew exactly where his leg was most likely to be aching. The brawler also ruffled his hair, and she waved a yellow painted hand at him as she left.

Instead of retreating to her room like she normally would, Blake joined him in the living room. She curled up in the armchair with a steaming cup of tea and a novel thicker than his arm. Occasionally she would pause and ask if there was anything he needed, and then go back to reading.

After a couple hours, Weiss appeared with the pain killers. She suggested taking another dose now that he could, and brought him a glass of water so he didn’t have to swallow them dry this time. After he thanked her, she just rolled her eyes and nodded, like it should have been obvious that she would do this.

Around lunch time, everyone gathered in the living room with their food instead of sitting in the kitchen like they normally would. Rain was still lashing angrily at the windows, and his leg still kind of hurt. But his friends were here. They’d been with him all day, without him even needing to ask.

So maybe it wasn’t so bad.

**Author's Note:**

> So it turns out I'm doing more things in this universe. It's officially diverged into an AU where the kids all settled down in the house in Mistral and just said Nope to the plot. So that's what's up now.


End file.
